Almost four days after the landslide hit the small village of Al-Dhafeer on a rocky hillside west of the capital Sanaa, eight survivors were recovered from the rubble.

Nine more bodies were also recovered on Sunday, six of them children and three women, the official Saba news agency reported.

It had said earlier that 34 residents were still missing.

"Rescuers are still trying to find survivors among the 34 people reported missing and who are believed to still be under the rubble... even if the chance of finding them alive is diminishing," the news agency said.

Rescuers were using tractors and small earthmovers to clear the rubble and some people were digging by hand.

As many as 25 of the village's 31 houses were destroyed, buried under huge piles of rubble.

It was not immediately clear what caused the landslide. Yemen's seismology centre had no word of an earthquake and there were no reports of severe weather.

Despite its proximity to oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Yemen is one of the world's poorest countries with a per capita gross domestic product of just 800 dollars.